President Donald Trump told international companies they are welcome only if they respect the United States’ immigration rules, after hundreds of South Korean workers were arrested last week in Georgia.
U.S. immigration authorities said Friday they had raided Hyundai’s sprawling manufacturing site near Savannah, Georgia, where the Korean automaker produces electric vehicles, detaining 475 people, most of them South Korean nationals.
Trump wrote late Sunday on Truth Social he was “calling on all Foreign Companies investing in the United States to please respect our Nation’s Immigration Laws.”
“Your Investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people … and we will make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so,” Trump said, adding he expected overseas firms to “hire and train American Workers.”
The dramatic raid stunned many in South Korea, which agreed in July to purchase $100 billion in U.S. energy and make a $350 billion investment in the U.S. in return for lower tariff rates.
South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung and Trump, who has made luring foreign companies to invest in the U.S. under the threat of trade retribution a cornerstone of his presidential agenda, held their first meeting in Washington two weeks ago.
The plant where the raid took place, which is still under construction, will produce batteries that power electric vehicles and was billed by Georgia’s Republican governor in 2022 as “the largest economic development project in our state’s history.”
South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said over the weekend he was “deeply concerned” by the detentions of Korean nationals and would fly to the U.S. on Monday, while South Korea’s opposition party called the raid “a grave matter that could lead to broader repercussions.”
Most of the workers are being held in an immigration detention center in Folkston, Georgia, though as of Friday, none had been charged with crimes, according to American immigration authorities.
Kang Hoon-sik, the Korean president’s chief of staff, said negotiations between Seoul and Washington had been finalized for their return — and South Korea would send a charter plane to bring them home.
